Like a Dove Hung in the Stars
by skele-smol
Summary: Unperturbed by her pr-teen's sullen mood, the mother presses on. "It's so quiet out here. Far away from the cities. I really think you'll like it if you give it a chance. Just look at all these trees you can climb, that sounds like fun doesn't it?" Violet switches her attention away from watching her mother from the corner of her eye to the road and the changing scenery.
1. Time to go

**Like A Dove Hung In The Stars.**

"**_It's just, I've watched people leave before. Family, friends. They never come back. But, you did. And, now I can't imagine what it would be like if you weren't here." ~ Violet_**

**Chapter:1. Time to go.**

Gazing straight ahead, only half-aware of a world outside the claustrophobic comfort of the beat up old truck, Violet curls herself deeper into the passenger seat. Her knees pulled close to her chest, one arm folded around her shins, hugging them close. The seat-belt crosses over her small, balled up body and holds her in place while she affords all of her attention to idly pick at the fraying hole in the knee of her jeans. Pointedly ignoring the duffel bag crammed with her clothes that thumps against the bench seat between them and her mother's bandaged hand that makes her blood chill as she fiddled with the radio. Trying to find a station not filled with emergency news broadcasts, or the strange debate between leading experts over whether or not the dead were rising, anything to break the awkward silence between her and her daughter.

"Not far now, honey."

Her mother's voice is thick and heavy, and oozing with false brightness and strained excitement breaks the not quite silence. Violet's eyes flicker up for a moment, quietly watching the twitch that has been randomly pulling at the corner of her mother's eye before she snorts rudely through her nose and turns away, yanking the hood of her sweatshirt over her head before pressing her temple against the dirty window.

Unperturbed by her pr-teen's sullen mood, the mother presses on. "It's so quiet out here. Far away from the cities. I really think you'll like it if you give it a chance. Just look at all these trees you can climb, that sounds like fun doesn't it?"

Violet switches her attention away from watching her mother from the corner of her eye to the road and the changing scenery. Staring at said trees that had barely crept along the horizon a few hours ago when they had left in the morning light as they now sidled in around them, spot-lighted in the golden caress of the afternoon sun. Shadows weaving in and out of thick trunks and dappled light in a dance of carefully choreographed rhythm though it was lacking the soul.

They had long since left the familiar highways, the trucks sturdy engine now crooning to the primitive dirt roads beneath the tires rather than hissing over the asphalt. She had been carried so far away from home now, but still the wretched memories of yesterday swirled in Violet's head. Tormenting her even as she pressed her eyes into the backs of her knees until the colourful lights of pressure sashayed into her vision. Her fingers curled and pulled her legs even closer, until the heels of her scuffed up old sneakers bumped up against her rear. The pale butterscotch blonde hair that had been tucked behind her ears slid free from the confines of her hood to curtain around her face, hiding her from the world even if she couldn't hide from the thoughts that romped and rolled in her mind.

The thing about drowning is that it is a silent struggle. Not loud and thrashing like you see in the movies, but more suffocating, you rarely know it's happening until it's too late. And the thing about Violet is that she is very, very good at being quiet.

Grief rolls up over her in heavy waves, forcing her down into the darkest depths of her soul and trapping her there until she is numb and exhausted before something else takes hold and hurtles her upwards. Slamming her through the surface and into another emotion that is equally as terrifying. She wants to call out as she finds herself tossed around in the riptides of conflicting emotions but finds her voice lodged in her throat. Unable to communicate what she is feeling because she doesn't understand it well enough herself. All she knows is that she wants to be saved. She wants a rescuing hand to tow her back to life and stability. Back to the world she knew but, even with her mother right there beside her, her internal torment goes unseen and she is left to drown alone.

Everything was such a goddamn mess and she didn't know how to fix it. Didn't know if it _could _be fixed anymore, no matter how much she wants to. A tiny gasp bubbles in her throat, but she swallows it back down before it can turn to a sob.

"Violet, you ok baby?"

Embers of anger smolder in the pit of her belly and her eyes flash with indignant fury as she strains her vision as far toward her mother as she could without having to move her head. She can see the woman tentatively glance toward her. The muddied blonde, almost sandy, hair that usually framed her face so neatly, is a nest of tangles and knots, sticking to the clammy dampness of her brow. Violet thought it strange, it wasn't all that warm yet, but she had seen the red that rimmed unnaturally bright eyes, so she simply assumed that she was getting sick. The sky blue colour of her mother's eyes, even fogged with fever, were paler than those of her grandmother's. Hers had been so deeply dark, almost lavender, like slices of the evening sky when the stars first emerge to play and wink coyly at the resting world below, and Violet had loved the way that they danced with fathomless love and patience for the child more her own than a granddaughter. She had loved how they creased into crescent moons when she laughed at whatever silly antic Violet had indulged herself in.

But all of that was gone now. And Violet was left staring at watered down replicas that only reminded her of the faded out colour and the lightless edge that had been left behind when her grandmother's life had ended. Folded up in her rocking chair, a smoking rifle hugged to her chest and a bloodied crater where her broken heart had once been. And it hurt. It hurt so much. Far worse than any skinned knee or sliced finger. It hurt more than the time that she had fallen out of the apple tree in her grandmother's garden and broken her collarbone, when it had hurt to even breathe.

The painful throb in Violet's throat and twist behind her heart forced her to drop her gaze and look away. This time the hurt came with every beat of her heart, and it only twisted further and pushed the hurt deeper when she heard her mother take a juddering breath. "I love you, Violet. I need you to know that. I wish I had been around more. I wish I had been stronger for you."

Violet sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth. She hadn't been expecting those words to pass over her mother's lips nor did she expect to find herself blinking furiously against the sudden burn of tears as they gathered into the corners of her eyes. She wouldn't cry. She hadn't cried in years, and she'd be damned if she broke down now. Instead she gathered every ounce of contempt and spite she had collected over the years, all of the misery and outrage, and she tangled them like thorns around the words she hissed. "If you love me then why are you leaving, _again _?" She turned her chin and glared furiously at the surprise that her mother dared to allow seep into her own eyes as sky blue met glacial green. "If you love me, then you wouldn't get rid of me!"

She saw the barb in her words stick and burrow deeply into her mother's heart. And Violet couldn't help but silently crow in triumph at the anguished expression that crumpled her mother's face before she turned her head away, sliding her vision back to the road. Seeing but ignoring the flicker of concern that caught in her mother's eyes as they settled for a moment on the sickly gray pallor mottling through the pale tone of her skin peeking out from under the bandage. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel, a tiny pained gasp whistling through teeth that worried the tender skin of her bottom lip and her knuckles bleaching even paler under the ferocity of her grasp. "I'm not getting rid of you-"

The girl rolled her eyes and snorted in disgust and what seemed to her as a baldfaced lie. "You made me pack up my shit as soon as we got back from grandma's! Sure sounds like it to me."

"Please don't swear." Her mother sighs and Violet folds her arms over the tops of her knees and pushes her face into them before her mother continues. Her words are soft and gentle, almost pleading for her daughter to understand. "It won't be for long, Violet. I promise. You'll understand why one day, maybe when you have kids of your own. You'll learn that loving someone, truly loving someone, doesn't mean that you hold on to them so tightly that you drag them down with you. But rather you hold them up and give them the chance to learn how to live without you."

The rumble of the engine fills the tense silence, wheels crunching over carefully spread gravel as the truck slows down. Violet tilts her head just enough for her to peek over her pillowed arms and glare at the building looming ahead. It stands high and proud behind tall brick walls dressed in climbing ivy and with sturdy, carefully mounted iron gates, and there, above her head, written in the skilled twists of cold metal reads the name Ericson. Violet's eyes widen as realization oozes and slides its cold fingers along the back of her neck, her belly roils with a wave of nausea as bile rushes and scorches the back of her throat. And when she hears the grind of the handbrake that marked the end of the journey with such finality, she breaks. Whirling in her seat and jerking against the pull of the seat-belt still bracing her in place, Violet desperately tries to hold her voice steady, but the sudden abandonment of her anger leaves behind nothing but the quietness of a frightened child. "Is it because I didn't call you? When grandma died. Or because I didn't help when grandma fell on you and cut your hand?"

Her mother lowers her head and shakes it miserably. Her heart hurts to hear Violet so upset and she hates that leaving her daughter here, alone, is the best chance she has to keep her safe. Her mother's instinct screams in outrage and protest against the logic in her thoughts. A mother fights to protect their offspring, she doesn't give up. A mother bird feigns injury to lure away a predator, a lioness will fight to her last breath for her cub, nature didn't make mistakes when programming a mother's instinct. But her human mind, desperate to make its point, throws up the memory of walking into her mother's little house. The atmosphere stilled and quiet, with only the sounds of the TV rippling through the air. She can taste the lingering copper tang of blood and her own panic mingling with the acrid claws of burned gunpowder at the back of her throat.

She can still remember the fear as her exhaustion from work suddenly sloughed off her skin like oil, and the lurch her gut made when she caught the low rasp emanating from the den. Instinct made her run toward the threat while logic told her to flee. But the voice in her mind urging her to find Violet, to protect the child she had made and carried within herself proved to be far stronger. Now, away from imminent danger, it was logic's turn to dictate her moves. "I need to know you're somewhere safe, while I deal with grandma's body."

"Bu-but, you didn't send me away when you did that stuff with grandpa."

Violet's voice is so tiny. So lost and scared and vulnerable, and she can't bring herself to look at her daughter. She just can't! She can't bear to see those whirlpools of gray and green glare at her anymore. She can't bear the thought of Violet hating her more than she hates herself.

She knows she hasn't been the best mother to her. But she was a mother who tried her best. She had tried her best to keep a roof over their heads while her husband drank and screwed his days away. She had tried her best to attend Violet's school concert, her first time singing solo. Christ, Violet had been so proud, she practiced her song for hours every single day. But when the day rolled around, her supervisor had refused to switch her schedule and she had to go home to a heartbroken little girl. All of her failures, all of the times she had let Violet down, they never left her. They spurred her on to try harder, and now, she is willing to lay everything on the line, to give her last breath if it meant keeping her daughter alive.

If she had arrived just a few minutes later, she'd have seen her own mother, Violet's grandmother, her chest blown open, slide from being wedged and propped between two chairs and a rifle and drag herself over to the oblivious girl and rip her throat out. It was only by the grace of the God she had been raised to believe in, that she had managed to get between her mother and her daughter and usher Violet from the room without her seeing what her grandmother had become. Although she herself had not escaped unharmed.

"That was different, sweetheart. I had grandma to look after you." She swallows thickly. Her throat burns like it's on fire and her head feels like it wants to split in two. She is cold despite the sweat that beads and rolls down her temple and streaks across her upper lip. And her hand throbs with a pain she'd never felt before. The bite underneath the bandages oozes and she is sure is infected, but she can't think of that now. She needs to think of Violet. "I'll come back to bring you home as soon as I can. I promise."

* * *

"Violet! Tenn!" AJ's voice barely reaches her over the growing chorus of the walkers. Their excited moans and howls writhing through the still night air like a plague of locusts, swallowing up anything living with an insatiable appetite.

"Violet!?" Clementine's cry is louder, higher. The desperation in the single word slicing through the horrifying dread that has all but enveloped every functioning part of Violet's brain.

She knows the walkers are too close. She knows that every moment she spends here fighting with the distraught boy in her arms is a second that brings them closer to death and death closer to them. The sweat slicking her palms makes holding onto him so much harder. She knows she should let him go. She knows you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved. But, despite it all, there is an instinct inside her that forces her fingers to curl harder around his thin arms and twist deeper into fraying fabric. An instinct that injects the firm authority of a parent into her voice. "Tennessee! Move your fucking ass, now!"

The herd was swarming closer to them now and Minnie had all but disappeared under half of the feeding pack, her body long stopped convulsing in her death throes. The rest shambled closer, a terrifying beast made of open jaws and sightless eyes. Their torn and bloodied fingers reaching out for their next warm victim even as threads of sinew and dribbles of blood stain their lips and dangle from their teeth.

"Violet, _please _!"

Clementine was safe at least, sprawled and bleeding into the broken wood with AJ at her side, his little hands pressing against the gouge in her calf in a useless attempt to slow down the rushing blood. Now it was just Violet and the boy struggling in her arms left to jump the gap. The desperation Violet felt to be safe on the other side with Clementine rivaled the instinct to hold onto Tenn. Logic scolded her harshly for selfishly clinging onto the boy whose desperation to go to what remained of his sister rivaled hers to leave, it hit so hard that for a moment her grip loosened enough for Tenn to wiggle an arm loose and pry at her fingers. But that strange instinct roared back over her arguing back that with Clementine there was a new beginning for both herself and the broken boy in her arms. He would earn two new friends and protectors and she, a new romance with the girl she already loved so deeply that it physically hurt.

_One day, maybe when you have kids of your own, you'll understand that truly loving someone isn't holding on, but rather letting go... _

Her heart slammed up into the back of her ribs at the words that rang in her thoughts. Where the fuck had that come from? She glanced down at the boy still struggling in her arms, at the tear tracks that carved through grime and previously dried up tears as a thought seeped into her mind. It didn't mean that, it couldn't surely?

Closing her eyes so she wouldn't have to watch him fall, Violet felt her fingers slacken. Just barely before AJ's harsh shout startled her grip to instinctively tighten and lids snap wide. "Throw him!"

AJ's voice sure of his decision, pierced through the indecisiveness that fogged her mind and the words finally made sense. In a rush of repressed memories she found herself remembering. Remembering the soft gurgling sounds her grandmother had made and the yelp of surprise from her mother. She could see it clearly, the cut, no... the bite on her mother's hand, the sickly gray skin and fevered eyes as she rushed her out of the house and into the truck. And she realized then, that her mother had left her at Ericson's not because she wanted to, but because she knew she had to if she had wanted to give Violet a fighting chance at survival.

And now she was facing the same impossible decision. Hold onto Tenn and they both die, leave him to the mercy of the walkers or...

Violet waited for Tenn to rear in her arms again and used his momentum to alter her grasp from his shoulders to under his arms, locking him into a reversed bear hug. Stepping back on her heel she used the force of his movement to jump start a powerful pivot and throw the boy across the sheer drop.

Panting heavily, Violet lifted her gaze from Tenn's squirming form, clinging at the edge of the broken bridge with AJ's hands on the back of his shirt to help haul him up, over to Clementine. Her tawny gold eyes wide with horrified understanding of what was to come next. Violet was too close to the edge to risk a jump and the walkers too close for her to back up for a running start.

"Clem, I lo-" Violet's words broke off into a gasp of fear as she felt the hands grab her. She had never expected the withered corpses to be this strong. Fingers of iron snatching at her limbs, twisting into her hair and hauling her back toward gaping maws and bottomless stomachs. She struggled even as the first set of vicious teeth pierced into her shoulder, the swinging jaws crushing together. Her agonized screams came bubbling up her throat in the same way that her blood frothed and dribbled down mottled, sallow skin. Echoing across the ravine, bouncing against the craggy rocks and drowning out the watery roar of the rushing river below.

There were so many on her now as still more rolled over the writhing mass, desperate to find a space to latch onto and strip another mouthful of flesh until her knees buckled and sent them spilling to the bridge beneath them. Sinking to her knees, Violet felt herself growing lighter, despite the dozens of walkers still tumbling over her, forcing her down until her chest pressed to the wood that was quickly staining red as her terrified heart pumped furiously the life blood from her broken body, Violet could feel herself fading as she stared out over to the trio of survivors. She could barely hear them calling her name, like trying to listen with your head underwater.

"No! _Violet! _"

The pain that had burned through her nerves like tongues of fire had faded away to an icy numbness as her extremities slowly shut down and all that she could hear now was her own heartbeat as it pumped furiously, pushing more and more of her blood out of her body, the ragged pulls of shallow breath that rattled in and out of her lungs. Darkness was taking her vision away, starting from the edges and creeping inwards, encroaching with fuzzy fingers until all she could see was Clementine's trembling lips as they moved soundlessly. Forming words that Violet thought she'd never hear from anyone again.

"I love you back."

As Violet lay there, knowing but not feeling her fragile body shred, her lids slipping shut in her exhaustion she heard a voice. Not the terrified voices of AJ and Tenn, roaring threats and apologies into the swarm, nor the heart wrenching pleadings of Clementine as yet another person she cared for lay dying before her, but a voice Violet had all but forgotten over the last seven, almost eight years. A voice that she instinctively knew from the carefully protected memories of her toddler life.

It was warm and soft, drowning out the chilling sounds of her death and replacing the with radiating comfort and a touch as delicate as a feather that pushed back messy blonde strands soaked in red and pulsed golden warmth into her deathly cold skin.

"It's alright, sweetheart. You can let go now." Those familiar sky blue eyes, shimmering with the wetness of unshed tears filled Violet's vision as the woman she knew knelt beside her, her elegant fingers sliding between her own long ones. "I've come to take you home."

_Mom? _

Her mother's hand that had been smoothing her hair, slid down and curled around her jaw. Gentle thumb brushing away the crimson streak of raw meat and muscle from her cheek like it was little more than a smudge of dirt. As her touch left Violet's cheek, she smiled at the skin now smooth and whole, her other hand with fingers still tangled, carefully helped the fallen young woman drag herself from under the feeding walkers and stand shakily on her feet. "You've fought so hard, for so long. You've given them a chance, but now it's time to let them go."

"B-but, they need me... Clem needs me. I can't-" Violet shook her head, her voice trembled and pleaded for her mother to understand as the first tears that she could remember scorched at the corners of her wide eyes. She couldn't leave them, she didn't want to.

"I know." Her mother leaned forward and pressed her lips to her daughter's forehead, soothing and soft and full of pride for the young woman she had only known as a child. "But the boys'll be alright. _Clementine _will be alright." She pulled back and cupped her hands around Violet's face, thumbing away every diamond tear like she had done once when she had been small. "And you'll see her again. When her time comes, she'll come home too."

Those gentle, comforting words pulled a shuddering breath from Violet's chest. She felt her body sag against her mother's, her fingers clinging to her mother's wrists as she folded herself closer. When she spoke again it was small, her words barely a whisper. "When will that be?"

For a long moment, her mother said nothing, but she could hear the thick swallow as she contemplated her next words. "I can't tell you that, Violet. I wish I could." Her hands shifted. One wrapping around the teens shoulders, fingers moving in a soothing circle between the blades as her other threaded through the pale blonde, almost silvery strands of short hair, sifting them through her fingers like delicate petals. "But you'll know. When the time is right, you'll know and you'll be the one to go to her and bring her home too."

As her heart gave its final weak flutter, and crimson tinted lashes slid over watercolour irises one last time, Violet's physical lips twitched into the barest ghost of a smile. Beyond the darkness and the blood in a place where death and walkers held no fear, mother and daughter moved silently between shadow and the dawn's first light. It was only when Violet felt that final connection to her body sever did she dare look back. Back to the forest that had been her home, back to the bridge where she had given her final sacrifice. And back to the retreating form of the girl who had crashed into her life only weeks earlier and changed it in ways she never thought possible.

Violet watched the girl she had trusted her broken heart to and who had spent their short time together, fitting the pieces back and filling the missing shapes with her own, disappear into the golden halo of dawn, her lips parting as she breathed into the wind and hoped her words would carry to her.

"I'll see you on the other side, Clem."


	2. Take me home

**Chapter:2. Take me home.**

Under a sky of fathomless velvet indigo, under the stars that shone and winked in and out of wisping clouds; delicate, thin strokes of an artists brush, Clementine felt something inside her chest urging her to lift her eyes toward the heavens. There were lighter patches scattered among the dark, clusters of faint and bold light, and dotted between, she found two the trio of constellations that she refused to forget.

Her clouding, honey gold eyes softened as they found the fish, that was AJ. _"He's getting better around people." _

The knife, that was her own. _"I wish everyone had seen it sooner." _

And the bird...

She frowned gently. The bird constellation had been harder and harder for her to find. She knew that the constellations altered according to the time of year, but they didn't just vanish entirely for months on end, only to flicker back into existence when she dreamed of her.

She had been dreaming of her more frequently lately, more so now that both AJ and Tennessee had grown and moved onto families of their own, father's both of them and she a grandmother to their children.

Sometimes she dreamed of how she might have looked if she were still here. Old, like herself, but still elegant and fierce. Pale hair paled further, shot through with silver touches, and the limpid pools of green in her eyes a little more dilute with grey. But more often when Clementine dreamed, they were back at the bell tower at the old boarding school, teenagers together. She would smile and move over, allowing Clementine to sit on the edge of the roof beside her. She would be leaning back on her palms, crossing one long, slim leg over the other and together they would observe the remaining stars, point out new constellations uncovered from the clouds. The moon, full and hazy, breathed life back into peridot eyes beneath an eclipse of blazing stars. But no matter the dream, it had always ended with tender kisses and a soft voice, like a breath on the wind, whispering. _"I'll see you on the other side, Clem." _

Though last night, when they had parted, the script had been different and her message changed. _"Look for my dove and you'll find me." _

When she had woken that morning, Clementine knew something had changed. Her aging body felt lighter, her aches and pains set in her joints had lifted and her eyesight, that had been failing her, caught on flashes of familiar faces that her heart knew and loved and her mind knew were no longer tied to this world.

It was better now. This new world. The walkers were finally lessening in numbers and humanity had found itself again. This time the world felt stronger and the people in it, more understanding and tolerant after uniting against a common threat. Gone were the prejudices of the oldest world. People no longer cared much about your skin colour, your nationality or who you loved, wealth and poverty held no meaning, you were alive and that was all that mattered. It had taken near extinction for the human species to figure that out.

The sky above was darkening further now. The little town behind her shutting off lights to conserve energy and not attract any of the few walkers still roaming. There were far less of them out there, but still, it wasn't smart to bring them near at night. Clementine tilted her head back, bracing herself on her palms as she looked to the stars. Her tiring old eyes softening as they again searched out the trio of constellations held even more clearly in her mind. The fish, the knife, and where was the bird?

Clementine blinked hard against the wetness that gathered in her eyes. She still couldn't see it. She knew where to look, but it wasn't there.

"Clem?"

She raised her hand, swiping her eyes quickly before glancing back over her shoulder at the man standing there, his fingers twisting together nervously out of habit, something he was never able to shake.

"Hey there, Tennessee." She smiled softly, hoping he would ignore the wetness of tears that clung to her lashes.

"You shouldn't be out here alone in the dark. AJ will worry."

A soft hum of laughter tickled her throat as Clementine shook her head slowly. "That man will find every reason to worry about me when he really doesn't need to."

The scarred man sighed before he gestured back to the town. "We should go. I can walk you back."

Clementine shook her head again, this time the motion was slow and gentle. The shoulder length curls threaded with silver bounced against her nape. "Not tonight, Tenn." She paused for a moment and her eyes cast down at the ground thoughtfully. Teeth drawing her bottom lip between them for a moment before she sighed again. "Could you go get AJ for me, though? I think... I think tonight is the night."

Tennessee snapped his head up, his eyes widening and glassing with tears. "Are you sure?"

Clementine sucked in a long breath, held it for a few seconds and then blew it out noisily, steadying the quiver in her voice. "Yeah. I'm tired, Tenn. But tonight, I-" She swallowed hard, unable to quite find the words. "Tonight, feels different."

The man nodded and ran off, back into the dark and leaving Clementine alone again. She could already feel the edges of her vision fading. She could feel the slowing of her beating heart. Living in a world as savage as the walker world took its toll on its people. It matured its children fast and burned them out faster but it also made them more aware. And Clementine had always been acutely aware of the costs to herself and now she was ready to settle her tab.

Long minutes passed and all Clementine felt was the calming peacefulness of one who knew her time was finite and accepted it was at an end. Ten minutes stretched to twenty and twenty into thirty before she heard the sound of pounding feet and rattling breath. Moments later she heard a wuff of breath as AJ dropped to his knees, felt strong arms wrap around her and wide hands gently coax her to lean back.

So, she did.

Clementine curled back against AJ's broad chest, let him draw her into his arms. The fingers of her left hand found and curled around Tennessee's fingers as he dropped down beside them. Her lips curved into a small blissful smile. She had her boys. The boys she had raised and guided. She was going to miss them.

She was aware of her lids drooping, too tired to stay open anymore but she was also hyper aware that there was someone else here, just skirting along the edges of her peripherals. A flash of brown and a hint of blue.

"Lee?"

A voice floated back to her. She recognized it but it wasn't formed properly so she couldn't quite tell who it belonged to.

She could still feel AJ's arms around her, still feel Tennessee's hand in hers. With a tremendous amount of effort Clementine lifted her chin to meet the deep dark eyes of the man she had seen born in the middle of tragedy and now was seeing a world finding its peace.

"Someone's here." She gasped quietly. "Can you see them, AJ? Who is it?"

AJ's face crumpled. The burning in his eyes forcing out the first of the tears that he had been stemming. "No one's here Clem, just me and Tenn."

His heart ached at the confusion that clouded over dimming gold. His breathing stuttered into broken sobs.

The small woman he held, the woman who had been his protector, his teacher, his mother was leaving him. She had taken his tiny hand in hers and guided him through nightmares that there had been no refuge from in the waking world. She had taught him all her knowledge, some her own lessons and the others the lessons that Lee had taught her. And now, she was teaching him the final one again, teaching him it was time to let go. This time though, he was powerless to stop it.

"Can you see the stars, AJ? Can you help me find my bird?" Clementine's free hand lifted slowly, trembling as her strength ebbed. "I need to find it."

AJ glanced to Tenn, his friend and brother, using him to help ground his emotions. They held each other's gaze for a moment until Tenn gave a single nod, agreeing that they should do this for her. Give Clementine the one last comfort she had asked for in this world.

It took AJ a long moment steady his nerves before he slid his fingers along Clementine's arm and circled her frail wrist in fingers and a gentle but firm grasp. "The stars look so pretty, Clem. And I can see your star bird, I'll show you."

Carefully he moved her arm in slow sweeps, mapping out the shape that she had taught them both when they'd all been younger. With every invisible line Clementine's soft smile grew wider, though she wasn't watching her hand or the stars that it traced. Instead she was watching something forming just off in the middle distance with clouded, unfocused eyes. The shimmering hazy lines firming into that shape of someone familiar. A shaky sobbing breath burst over her lips as she finally saw the figure who had been teasing the edges of her vision, stealing the breath from her lungs. "She's here, AJ."

AJ felt his brow tug downwards in confusion. "The star bird?"

Clementine slowly shook her head. "No..." her voice drifting as her lashes fluttered.

Tennessee squeezed Clementine's fingers until she squeezed back. "Who's here, Clem? Who are you seeing?"

Her eyes fixed ahead at the long, slim body slouching against the fence not far off. Arms folded across her chest and hip cocked. Finely lined features adorned the sharp and delicate angles of her face. Thick lips and thin elegant brows curved into a welcoming expression as light green eyes shot through with silver danced merrily at her. And her hair. The fine strands of ash blonde, last seen soaked in blood, gleamed in the starlight, laying smoothly against her pale skin. "Took you long enough. I've been waiting for you."

"Violet."

Both AJ and Tenn startled at the breathy name that Clementine whispered. A name that neither had heard her utter in decades.

Tenn, swallowed thickly, his throat suddenly crushing in emotion. "Vi's here?"

Clementine nodded, the movement slow and barely there. "Oh, Tenn, you were right. Everyone gets to be a person again. She's beautiful. She wants me to go with her... " A dry, heaving breath rattled in her chest. "AJ... She wants to take me home."

Instincts in AJ had his fingers tightening around Clementine, a surge of protective thoughts screaming through every synapse for him to hold on to the first woman he had ever loved. He had never felt so helpless as he did now. He had protected her for more years than anyone else in her lifetime. Protected her from every monster that had ever tried to take her from him with more tenacity and will. But he had known that this day was coming. This was not a monster he could fight. Enveloping her frail form in his arms, he bowed his head and rested his cheek among her curls, breathing in the comfort he had always found in his mother's scent.

"Then..." He swallowed hard, tears rolling over his cheeks and catching upon the stubble there. "Then you should go to her. Go home and be happy with Violet-"

Whatever else he tried to say was lost. Gone with the unintelligible gasps of sobs as Clementine smiled softly, watching Violet push herself away from the fence post that she had been leaning against and moved toward her, both her hands outstretched, palms waiting to take Clementine's own.

Just as their fingertips slipped over each other and tightened, Clementine felt the soft brush of lips move against her cheek. A final loving kiss from a son to his mother and gentle words spoken just for her. "I love you, mom."

Clementine's eyes were closed, her almost negligible weight sagged back against him and through her back, pressed up so tight against his chest, AJ felt the final few beats of her heart before it stilled. Her final words still hanging in the air between them.

"I love you back, my little Goofball."

Violet's fingers were warm against Clementine's wrist as she helped her wriggle free and upright. Warmer than she could remember. As soon as she was orientated, albeit a little unsteadily on her own _two _feet and appearing as she had when she had been as a teenager, Clementine felt her eyes burn with tears as she hurled herself into the blonde's arms, burrowing her face under Violet's chin.

"I missed you. So much," She gasped the trembling words into the warm pale skin at her throat. Clinging tightly to Violet, her finger twisting into the gathered fabric of her denim vest, still not entirely convinced that this was real, terrified that she would awaken and find this to be yet another dream. "...So much."

Violet smiled softly. Tucking an escaped curl behind Clementine's ear before sliding her fingers beneath Clementine's chin as she tilted her face upwards. She leaned in closer, warm lips brushing over hers. "I was never far away."

Gentle kisses turned heated, frantic. Violet's fingers tangled into thick, dark curls, tied neatly to the side despite the few errant strands that had always liked to tumble free. Humming lightly in approval as she sifted them through her fingers, they were still so, so soft, just like she remembered. Clementine's palms spanned and cupped Violet's sharp jaw, her thumbs stroking against the high cheekbones as she better angled the blonde's head. Fitting her mouth to the girl's she had lost so long ago, and kissing her deeply until her lungs burned for air and she could taste the tang of salt at the seam of their lips.

Breaking the kiss but still holding Violet close, foreheads touching and noses bumping, Clementine shattered. The guilt she has carried since the night she lost her is ice sitting heavily in her belly. No matter the warmth she feels radiating from Violet she still feels frozen on the inside. Unable to melt it on her own, despite how she has tried over the years she hasn't been able to shift it at all. Her voice hoarse with grief as her sobs hiccuped painfully in her throat. "I'm sorry Violet. I'm so, so sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I'm sorry I left you there. I let you die. It was my fault."

"No, Clem." Violet murmured softly, her voice soothing in that warm bluesy lilt that Clementine had missed so dearly. She curled her fingers around the backs of Violet's hands that cupped her face as the older teen carefully thumbed away her tears. "It wasn't anyone's fault, least of all yours."

"I dreamed of you."

"I know. I was there."

Clementine pulled back sharply, her eyes wide. "You were there?"

"Every time." Her smile wavers and insecurity touches the green of her eyes. "Dreams are gateways and I could hear you, did you really think I wouldn't come when you called?"

Clementine shook her head sharply, the motion bouncing guilty whispers around her skull. "N-no… It's just. You, as in _You _-you, were there in my… um." The tips of her ears warm and embarrassed heat seeps along her spine as she finishes in a quiet mumble. "In those dreams."

"In those-" Violet's eyes suddenly dart away in avoidance as her confusion lifts. She blushes with a delicate sweetness that complimented the shyness that softens her features. "Oh… uh, well, yeah…"

Her shoulders curl inwards and uncertainty radiates from her, like she feels guilty for intruding. But Clementine simply folds herself back into Violet's arms, encircling her own around Violet's neck as her chin tilts and she leans up, pressing her lips against hers again. Finding that connection that she thought was fabricated of only her imaginings and in her dreams. It cements to her mind, that all of the smiles and shyness come from some deep emotion... and that's a beautiful thing, that's something real. And no one can ever take that away.

Finally breaking the kiss and tawny eyes, more golden than brown, met and held the pale green that catch in silver flame as Clementine slid her hand down Violet's arm and into her palm. The fingers threading and twining until palms pressed tight together and even their wrists crossed so that their pulses skipped and fluttered against each other in unison.

"Take me home, Violet."


End file.
